Top 10 Unsolved Mysteries Of The World

Archeologists, cryptologists, historians and investigators – these are the best careers for one who is interested in trying his hand in solving any one of the greatest mysteries of the world. While the extraterrestrials and the lost city of Atlantis

1. RongorongoAs if the Easter Islands in Chile were not mysterious enough with the monumental statues called moai, a set of glyphs were discovered in the 19th century which have been indecipherable till now. The name rongorongo is given to the system of writing that was etched on the wooden tablets. If deciphered, these glyphs may be able to tell us the unsolved secret behind the hundreds of moai statues found scattered around the Easter Islands. Image Credit: cocoaosx (dot) com

2. Georgia GuidestonesThey have been called America’s Stonehenge, a monument of Satanic origin, a Rosicrucian structure of a New World Order and even a monument of cult and devil worship. The Georgia Guidestones is a granite monument conveying a new set of 10 commandments in eight world languages. The identity of the person who ordered this monument to be built in 1979 is only known by the pseudonym R.C. Christian. Image Credit: wikimedia (dot) org

3. The Wow! SignalYou know what they say about how the sign of intelligent life elsewhere in this universe is that they never tried to contact us? Well, on a summer day of 1977 in Ohio – they just might have done so. Jerry Ehman, working on a SETI project, received a possibly non-terrestrial signal from beyond the Solar System that lasted for a whole 72 seconds. No one was ever able to get the signal again – and the name of the signal is derived from the remark Ehman wrote on the side of the signal’s printout. Image Credit: bigear (dot) org

4. Tamam Shud caseThis is one of Australia’s biggest and unsolved mysteries – heightened by the era of Cold War. The body of an unidentified man was washed up on the shore of an Adelaide beach in 1948 – with a scrap of paper inside a hidden pocket of his trousers with the words ‘Tamam Shud’. According to ‘The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam’, it means ‘ended’ or ‘finished’. Spy stories, love mysteries – there have been many theories about the incident, but the identity of the man was never found out by the investigators. Image Credit: jameybaby (dot) wordpress (dot) com

5. Shugborough InscriptionIf it cannot be explained after centuries of efforts of cryptographers and historians, you cannot but call it a mystery. This is true for the 18th century Shepherd’s Monument in Staffordshire, England. There is an inscription carved on the monument which is still one of the world’s top uncracked ciphertexts. Latin phrases, translation of Latin text, love message and many other explanations have been given – but none have proven as a decipher of the code DOUOSVAVVM. Image Credit: mysteryworlds (dot) wordpress (dot) com

6. KryptosWorld mysteries are not just centuries or millenniums old objects. They are even codes the answer of which one man can hold and not divulge it to the world. Kryptos, an encrypted sculpture by Jim Sanborn is one such. Where should it be located but the grounds of CIA in USA – where its fourth encrypted message still invites cryptographers worldwide to decode it. While the first three cryptic messages have been decoded, the fourth continues to be a mystery to the world – even after Sanborn has been dropping hints till 2010. Image Credit: miscellaneous-pics (dot) blogspot (dot) com

7. Voynich ManuscriptThis is undoubtedly the world’s top most mysterious and unsolved manuscript. Dated back to the early 15th century Italy, this is a manuscript about herbal plants and their uses. But codebreakers have been able to say that only by the illustrations of the plants. Firstly, the language and script used still remains unknown to the present day and secondly, most of the plants do not match any species that man has known till now. A famous case of historical cryptology, this manuscript continues to be the holy grail of cryptographers. Image Credit: aenigmaunveiled (dot) wordpress (dot) com

8. Aluminum Wedge of AuidWe are not sure how good your metallurgy knowledge is – but aluminum is a metal that does not occur in nature in pure form. It needs to be extracted from ores as it is found in a mixed form with other metals – and could be manufactured in a pure form only by the latter half of 19th century. Imagine the mystery when an aluminum wedge was found along with elephant bones dated 2.5 million years by Romanian workers. Unsurprising that alien theory has been used to explain this. Image Credit: friendsmania (dot) net

9. Taos HumWe are surprised there has not been any movie made on this as yet. The Hum is a phenomenon where some people hear a continuous low droning sound inaudible to most. If you think that is not that mysterious, what if we told you at least three people committed suicide due to this? While this phenomenon has been reported in a lot of countries, one of the most famous is that of Taos in New Mexico. Medically, the condition of hearing a droning sound continuously is called tinnitus, but can you explain a number of people suffering from the condition at the exact same time and same place in Taos? Image Credit: top-10-list (dot) org

10. Nazca GeoglyphsGlyphs mean symbols – so Nazca geoglyphs are the symbols that were engraved on the earth by the Nazca people in Peru between 400 and 650 AD. The exactness of the geoglyphs which ranged from spiders and monkeys to trees and flowers, ranging from 47 meters to 270 meters has raised eyebrows at the technology used, as the Nazcas obviously could not have had an aerial view. And most importantly, the reason for the engraving of these geoglyphs has also astounded historians and archeologists. There have been many disputes and theories regarding each of these phenomena – however none that can be said to have settled it for once and for all. Scratching the surface with these, you will tumble down the rabbit-hole of more obscure happenings that are shrouded in mysteries. Image Credit: preamp (dot) us

1. Rongorongo

As if the Easter Islands in Chile were not mysterious enough with the monumental statues called moai, a set of glyphs were discovered in the 19th century which have been indecipherable till now. The name rongorongo is given to the system of writing that was etched on the wooden tablets. If deciphered, these glyphs may be able to tell us the unsolved secret behind the hundreds of moai statues found scattered around the Easter Islands. Image Credit: cocoaosx (dot) com